Tool #3: ActiveCampaign (Email Service Provider)

That’s why I’m convinced this tool is such a brilliant asset for Messenger Bots.

Let’s take a look what an automation looks like:

In this example, we deliver a lead magnet; a checklist.

If someone doesn’t open the email within two days, we check if the contact is subscribed to the Facebook Messenger Bot.

If not, we send an email.

But if the person is subscribed..

.. we send the contact a message directly in Messenger by triggering a webhook.

Magic, right?

There are so many possibilities.

ActiveCampaign TL;DRPurpose: building smart marketing automation, not just emailLink:clickclick (affiliate)Pricing: starting at $9 a month for 1000 contacts.

Getting started with ManyChat

Ok, it’s time for some fun.

Let’s build a simple Facebook Messenger Bot.

You can set up a simple bot in less than 30 minutes.

First, we should have a plan.

The simple Messenger Bot we’re going to create needs to do the following:

A welcome message.

Deliver a checklist to new subscribers.

Capture the email address of subscribers.

Ask if they want to receive tips.

Possibility to ask questions.

Setting things up

There are a few things you have to do before we get started.

Open your ManyChat account & connect your page.

The free ManyChat version is okay for now, but I recommend upgrading to PRO to unlock more features.

After you’ve done that, go over to your Facebook Page Settings;

Set primary receiver to ManyChat.

Set prompt people to send messages to ON (this will show everyone a little window who visits your page).

Responses are partially automated, with some support by people.

Add your domain(s) to the white-listed domains list.

Using the Flow Builder

To build the conversation we’re going to create a Flow in the Flow Builder.

A flow is basically a visual map of all messages & actions.

And the Flow Builder allows us to build & change a Flow quickly 🙂

I totally love it, because it makes everything very visual.

When you create a new Flow, it will look like this;

You always start with an empty content block and then you start building from there.

Let me quickly show you how you do that in this video:

And it’s also possible to add all kinds of other steps:

Let me explain them one-by-one;

Send message: send a message to your subscriber.

Perform actions: allows you to execute all kinds of actions. You can add or remove tags, subscribe or unsubscribe someone from sequences, notify yourself, open conversations in the live chat, set or clear custom fields.

Start another Flow: you can build multiple Flows, and connect those with each other. This is for example handy to re-use flows or to break a huge flow up into small pieces.

Condition: you can use If/Else logic to push subscribers into different paths based on all kinds of things. You can for example check if someone has a certain tag, and send a different message based on that.

Randomizer: allows you to split-test a flow to see what is performing best.

Smart Delay: add a delay for minutes, hours or days into a certain Flow. For example, when I send someone a video, I wait for a few minutes to ask how they liked it.

Comment: add notes inside your Flows to keep a good overview.

That’s a lot of features.

No worries if you don’t understand them all, you learn them as you go.

Let’s build an example now, with some of these features.

Building a Flow

So, we start with a new Flow.

This is going to be our Welcome Message.

So let’s start with adding a personal image.

Inside the Send Message step we can add all kinds of things.

One of them is adding an image.

So that will look like this:

Then we’re going to ask a question.

I think it’s always important to let people know that messages are automated & how they can unsubscribe.

We add Quick Replies that people can click to answer.

When someone clicks OK, we drag another path & create a new message.

See how we’re also starting another flow when someone clicks unsubscribe?

We just have one unsubscribe Flow, so we can use it over and over again by using the Start another Flow step.

Pretty easy so far, right?

We then quickly segment the subscriber by asking a simple question, so that we can hyper-personalize our conversation later on.

I wanna know if the new subscriber creates Messenger Bots for his own business, or for clients.

We use an action to add a tag to the Subscriber’s profile.

This way we can use this information at a later moment for conditional content.

And then we ask if the subscriber wants to see more tips.

Do you see how we added different messages based on the answer to the previous question?

This makes it more relevant, resulting in higher engagement (and more sales).

And when someone says yes, we add the [Sub] Chatbot Tips tag so we know who’s is subscribed to that content.

Note: you can have different subscriptions. I for example also ask people if they want to subscribe to new articles, tutorials, downloads, Facebook Live’s etc.

And after that, we ask if the subscriber would like to receive a special checklist by email.

It’s important to mention you’re going to send it by email, so you set the expectation that you’re going to ask for an email address.

It looks like this:

See that purple Free keyboard input bubble?

This is a special step.

Because here, we’re waiting for the subscriber to reply.

And once they do, we validate if it’s a real email address & store it into a User field.

The settings of that free keyboard input looks like this:

You set the Reply Type to email, select in which User Field you want to save the email address and ManyChat will do the rest.

You can use User Fields to collect all kinds of data about your subscriber.

It’s pretty cool.

And after that last message, we add some Quick Replies so the subscriber has the opportunity to ask questions if necessary.

That’s it!

You’ve now built a simple bot that is onboarding new subscribers & capturing their email address 🙃

Start simple and expand from there.

Don’t overcomplicate it.

Don’t fall into these 5 traps

I’ve coached hundreds of people in the last two years to build a Messenger Bot for their business.

And over and over again I see them making the same mistakes or falling into the same pitfalls.

Here’s a top 5.

Mistake #1: Thinking too complicated

Seriously, don’t get stuck in all the possibilities.

I get that all the possibilities are superduper exciting.

(I can be busy for days trying things, lol)

But don’t do this.

For example, a lot of people ask me how they integrate Artificial Intelligence into their Messenger Bot.

And this is totally possible with tools like Dialogflow.

But the truth is, you probably don’t need AI (yet).

I see people getting lost for days (or weeks) to figure this out.

Only to come to the conclusion that it’s WAY to much work if you don’t have 50.000 subscribers yet.

Because you have to train AI like crazy to even make the smallest impact.

Just stick to structured messages and give people options they can click so they can continue the conversation.

Keep it simple.

You can always improve things over time.

Mistake #2: Starting without a plan

You should not start creating a Facebook Messenger Bot without having a clear plan.

Answer for yourself;

Who is the bot serving?

What it’s purpose?

How am I going to get subscribers?

How will I keep subscribers engaged?

How am I going to convert subscribers into customers?

Having a solid plan is so much easier than creating the bot on the fly.

Mistake #3: Breaking the rules

You’re not a bad person.

I know that.

But I see so a lot of people getting blocked by Facebook because they didn’t stick to the rules.

And almost always, it’s because they didn’t know or fully understand the Messenger Platform Policies.

Promise me, that before you start building, you at least know the basic rules.

I’ll also explain the most important ones in chapter 6 of this guide.

Mistake #4: Not providing enough value

Messenger Marketing is all about building a relationship with your subscribers.

Think about how you could create value for them, instead of only trying to create value for yourself.

Don’t see Messenger solely as a platform to sell.

See it as a platform to help.

And sales will follow, promise.

I often like to refer to Jay Baer his quote.

“Make your marketing so useful people would pay you for it.”

I truly think that this is the key to successful at marketing.

This is the only way to convert more of your subscribers into customers.

We’ll dive deeper into this in chapter 5.

Mistake #5: Using it like email

I admit.

Messenger Marketing & Email Marketing have some things in common.

But also VERY different at the same time.

Don’t use Messenger Bots the exact same way as email.

I’ve seen people copying their emails into ManyChat and broadcasting this to people.

And then they complained that engagement was so low.

That’s not so surprising.

This has a lot to do with copywriting.

That’s what we’re going to talk about in the next chapter.

Chapter 3Copywriting for Facebook Messenger

In this chapter, I’m going to show you EXACTLY how to write awesome copy for Facebook Messenger.

If you want to get people engaged.

And to take action.

Then this chapter is a must read.

Here are my top tips for writing engaging conversations for Facebook Messenger.

Write like you talk

This is the ultimate copywriting hack.

When you write like you talk, something magical happens.

It just works.

For example, check out this short conversation:

Sounds pretty natural, right?

That’s because I’m reading all of my copy out loud.

I pretend like I’m having a conversation with myself.

If it sounds weird, I rewrite the conversation.

But if it sounds good, I know it’s good.

I really recommend you to do this.

And not only for Facebook Messenger.

Also try it when you’re writing emails or articles 🙂

Have a conversation

So obvious, right?

But believe it or not, most Facebook Messenger Bots aren’t conversational at all.

Lol.

Most businesses use them because of their high open rates and don’t care at all about having conversations.

Look at this example:

Not conversational at all, hu?

Now, try this;

Doesn’t that sound way better?

Instead of sticking the new video in someone’s face, we ask if they wanna know more about it.

Ask questions, give a few options people can reply with and let them control the conversation.

It will skyrocket your engagement.

And you’ll be perceived as less spammy too.

Win-win.

Write to ONE person

Most b2b copywriters are a total star at writing copy that speaks to totally nobody.

Don’t use generic messaging.

Pretend like you’re having a conversation with one single person.

If this is difficult, give the person you’re talking a name and pretend like you’re talking to him or her.

Still difficult?

Hang up a picture above your computer and pretend like you’re talking to that person.

(make sure this person fits your customer avatar)

What also helps, is to make sure you use words like “You”, “Your”, “We” (like you and me, not you and your company), “Us”.

I’m also doing this a lot in this article, in case you didn’t notice.

Haha.

Keep it short

I’ve seriously seen people copy-pasting whole emails into one freakin’ message block.

Don’t do this.

It’s a messaging platform.

Think about how you’re messaging with your friends.

Usually, you use short sentences..

..and maybe sometimes you write down a bit of a longer story.

Try to think about that next time you write copy for your Messenger Bot.

Use a framework

You don’t have to reinvent the wheel every time you write.

Most successful copywriters use a proven framework that they use over and over again.

You start with the framework, and then fill in the blanks.

Here’s what I’m using for my weekly Chatbot Tips;

Create a few of those frameworks for yourself.

It will make things easier.

And it doesn’t have to be a fancy visual.

You can also write it down like this;

Hey Max! I’ve ____ for you that will help you with ____ Wanna See it? (Yes, awesome!) (Remind me later!) (Unsubscribe)

Be relevant with conditional messages

This is probably another reason why Messenger is so cool.

By asking a few multiple-choice questions to your subscribers, you can easily segment your subscribers.

Take a look at this example from a Messenger Bot for gyms.

When we know these things, we can hyper-personalize our message, so it’s relevant to the subscriber.

And when you’re relevant, your engagement goes up.

When engagement goes up, sales increase.

So let’s continue on that example.

Someone answered;

Goal: losing weight

Struggle: eating healthy

Best way to help: online course

With that info, we can send a message like this;

“Hey, Madeline! Would you like us to send you proven tips for woman that will help you to eat healthy so you can lose weight?”

How could Madeline ever say no to that? Those tips will help with the exact goal & tackle the biggest struggle.

After we’ve given some tips, we could invite her for an online course that will help her even better.

Let me give you another example.

Let’s imagine a man, Mark, answered:

Goal: building muscle.

Struggle: creating effective training routine

Best way to help: 1:1 coaching

We could then send a message that says something like this;

“Hey Mark! Would you like to know the #1 training routine for guys that want to build muscle?”

After Mark said yes, we can share some tips for an effective training routine and then ask if he would be interested in 1:1 coaching.

Cool, right?

These are just some examples.

You can use this in all kinds of ways for any business.

And these are just 3 questions.

Every time someone engages with your Messenger Bot you can ask more questions to personalize the conversation even more.

Give multiple options

We talked earlier about the importance of asking questions to make it more conversational.

It’s totally okay if the answers to those questions are multiple-choice.

But it’s important that you always give an option.

Imagine what someone could answer.

Here’s an example;

I absolutely want people to answer with “Yes”, but I know that some people don’t want to or they wanna know why.

Here’s what happens when they click why:

See how I’m simply explaining it, giving them an option to continue?

And here’s what happens when they click no:

I ask them if he or she is absolutely sure and also show some social proof.

Or here, another example where I’m asking subscriber’s if they know what External Requests are:

Based on that, they follow different paths.

Try to crawl into the mind of your subscriber.

When you ask them something, what possible answers could they have?

A simple yes or no? Or do they maybe want to ask why?

Let people create their own experience.

Emoji’s

When you message with a friend, do you use emoji?

Yes, right? 🙃

I know that I do, a lot.

That’s why I’m also using a lot of emoji in my Facebook Messenger Bot.

You can use emoji’s to spice up the conversation:

Not too much, just enough.

Or use emojis to create structured lists:

Go crazy!

GIFs and images

I love to use emoji’s to express emotion.

(especially minion GIFs, ghehe)

For example, when someone joins my Facebook-group they get this GIF:

Or when someone unsubscribes:

Or when a subscriber gives me some positive feedback:

You get the point 🙂

They’re great to throw some humor into the game.

Another thing I like to do, which I didn’t see anyone do yet, is to make your own GIFs.

Here’s one I’m using when I send someone a reminder for a webinar, to show how excited I am:

Fun, right? Lol.

You can make your own GIFs by creating a short video, and then use Giphy their tool to convert it into a GIF.

Tip: don’t overuse GIFs. They can quickly get too much

Chapter 4Growing your Messenger list

We covered what Facebook Messenger Bots are.

And how you can create one.

Now I’ll share some effective strategies to get people on your list.

So without further ado, let’s get started.

So far we covered how Messenger Bots can be used, how you build one and how you write copy that’s engaging.

But that’s all worth nothing if you don’t get any people into your bot, right?

That’s what we’re going to talk about next.

Use your website to generate leads

There are some cool ways to convert your website traffic into subscribers.

And then you can use Actions inside your flow to increase or decrease the Lead Score.

So your flow will look something like this.

That’s it!

The best thing

And do you know what the best thing is about having a funnel like this in place?

It’s that every step can be automated and because of that it’s highly predictable.

No more guessing.

No more hoping.

Shall we make a simple calculation?

Let’s say your revenue goal is $100.000/year.

Your product is $497.

This means you’ll need to sell 201 products.

3,5% of all your subscribers go through all the steps and become a customer.

This means you’ll need 5.749 new subscribers in one year to get 201 sales.

And if you know that, you can start thinking about how to get 479 new subscribers a month.

Or just 16 a day.

Doesn’t sound too difficult right?

With these numbers, you can make a strong plan to achieve your revenue goal.

Chapter 6Messenger Platform Policies

There are a lot of rules.

And if you break them..

..it’s possible that your page gets blocked.

So make sure to read this chapter.

This guide wouldn’t be complete if we wouldn’t touch on the Messenger Platform Policies.

There are a lot of rules.

And if you break them, you risk getting your Facebook Page blocked or limited from sending messages to your audience.

(and you reallllllllllly don’t want that!)

That’s why I want to tell you about some of the most important policies.

But also be sure to read the policies yourself.

This is just my interpretation of the rules.

Don’t sue me if I’m wrong, okay? Lol

Here we go.

24-Hour Window

This one’s also known as the 24+1 Policy.

And it’s the one that’s confusing to most people.

So let’s tackle this one first.

Here’s what it says in the policy;

“Businesses and developers using the Send API have up to 24 hours to respond to a message sent by a person in Messenger when using standard messaging. A bot may also send one additional message after the 24-hour time limit has expired. The 24-hour limit is refreshed each time a person responds to a business through one of the eligible actions listed in Messenger Conversation Entry Points. This is commonly referred to as the ’24 + 1 policy’.”

Every time someone engages with your Messenger Bot you have 24 hours to send almost anything you like, even promotional messages.

Those first 24 hours, is what they call the “24-Hour Window”.

But there are strict rules of what you can and can’t send after those first 24 hours..

You are allowed to send one more message after the 24-Hour Window.

(which I don’t recommend unless you exactly know what you’re doing)

But after that, you’re not allowed to send any messages that could be perceived as promotional.

No coupons.

No discounts.

No limited-time offers.

No black Friday.

No giveaways.

No sales announcements.

No daily deals.

No whatever.

So…

…what are you allowed to send?

This is a bit of a gray area, as Facebook doesn’t give clear examples.

According to the policy, eligible use cases are:

News

Productivity

Personal Trackers

Pretty vague.

But if we’re diving deeper into developer documentation, you can also find a list of some other use cases under Message Tags.

Developers use these Message Tags to tell Facebook what kind of message this is.

You don’t have to worry about those tags if you’re using ManyChat.

But it’s giving us some other ideas of what’s allowed:

Business productivity

Community alert

Confirmed event reminder

Non-promotional subscription

Pairing update

Application update

Account update

Payment update

Personal finance update

Shipping update

Reservation update

Issue resolution

Appointment update

Game event

Transportation update

Feature functionality update

Ticket update

Again, this is only for non-promotional content.

But it’s quite a long list, hu?

Most of these things are probably useless for you, but there might be some that might be handy.

You could, for example, say that reminders for a webinar fall under confirmed event reminders.

Or if you’ve got a restaurant, you could use reservation updates.

But really, it’s a bit unclear about what’s really allowed because there aren’t any great examples.

Just make sure you’re not sending anything that could be perceived as promotional, and make it valuable to your subscriber.

I’m sending for example tips about Messenger Marketing every week to my subscribers.

Here’s an example of what that looks like;

See everything before I’m replying?

(the blue bubble)

That’s everything the subscriber gets before they interact.

As soon as they click one of those Quick Replies, the 24-hour window is refreshed.

So make sure that everything before that interaction isn’t promotional.

Here’s an example of what’s NOT okay.

And here another that could be perceived as promotional.

Some people try to overcome this by asking a question first, like this:

But really, don’t do that.

Then you’re just trying to cheat the system and you will get caught one day.

It allows you to send a message to people who’ve messaged your page in the past.

Possibility To Opt-Out

It’s a bit like the unsubscribe link that you need to have in all of your email newsletters.

You have to make sure it’s superduper easy for people to opt-out of your Messenger Bot.

Here are 3 ways every Messenger Bot should include in my opinion.

1) Unsubscribe button in the main menu

The is always easily accessible, so this is a great place to insert a unsubscribe button.

Add some other things to your Main Menu too, so that unsubscribe button isn’t the only option people can click when they open it.

2) Unsubscribe reply under every broadcast or sequence

When you send something out to your subscribers, make sure to include an option that allows people to unsubscribe.

See that blue bubble? That’s called a Quick Reply.

It will disappear as soon as someone engages with your message.

3) Keyword stop & unsubscribe

Set up some keywords that people can type to unsubscribe.

Most bots already have standard “Stop” & “Unsubscribe” keywords, but you could also consider adding another language.

You rather wanna make it too easy for people to unsubscribe than too hard.

Because if someone can’t figure out easily how to unsubscribe, they just block your page.

And if too many people block your page, you’ll get in trouble.

This is also called the Block Rate.

Keep track of your Block Rate

The block rate is the number of people who are blocking your page.

You can find this when you go to your page and then Settings » Insights » Messages.

If your block rate is getting too high, then this could be a red flag to Facebook that you’re spamming people.

Here’s what it looks like.

Luckily I’m good with 0%, haha.

There isn’t a clear number anywhere out there that tells you when too many people are blocking you.

I personally would always do everything to keep it below 3%.

A few suggestions you can do to keep your Block Rate low;

Make sure you’re attracting the right audience in the first place.

Make it extremely easy for people to unsubscribe. Tell them they can type “Stop” to unsubscribe, have an unsubscribe button in your main menu and have a quick reply people can unsubscribe with when you do a broadcast. It should be easier to unsubscribe than it is to block your page.

Be transparent, be honest; don’t trick people.

Focus on building relationships by providing value first.

Be safe! 😛

Policy Violation Notifications

When you did something wrong, you’ll get a notification.

You can find this when you go to your page and then Settings » Page Support Inbox.

But don’t let it come this far, okay? 🙃

General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR)

Okay, this isn’t really part of any Messenger Platform Policies.

But I get a lot of questions about this.

If you’ve any subscribers from Europe, keep reading.

(and otherwise skip, lol)

But first, understand I’m not a privacy lawyer.

This is just how I think it works.

I would always recommend talking to an expert on this topic.

Whom the GDPR applies to

It’s not only for businesses inside the EU.

It’s also for businesses who have people on their list from the EU.

Even if someone, for example, is from The Netherlands and currently is traveling in the United States this person still falls under the GDPR.

Processing data

When you take people their data outside of Messenger, you need people their consent.

Here’s what ManyChat says about this on their integrations page;

“If you or your subscribers are located in the European Economic Area (EEA), please be sure to obtain subscribers’ consent to transferring their data to any 3rd party you are integrating with in order to comply with GDPR.”

This means if you transfer any personal info about someone you need to tell people & they have to agree with it.

Max you did it again! When you mentioned making your marketing so good people would pay for it, this is the kind of stuff that people would even pay. Once again you proved, that you are the leading Chatbot expert who needs to be followed. I honestly say that you are my personal mentor in chatbots.